One of the benefits of living in the UK is that we seem to get Marvel movies a bit early. It’s not always the case, but putting this article together revealed to us that this loveable quirk of scheduling happens more often than not. Thanks Kevin Feige!
Now that Captain America: Civil War has reached British shores, then, here’s when to expect the next few Marvel movies in the UK (US version can be found here)…
28th October 2016 – Doctor Strange
Benedict Cumberbatch is Stephen Strange – Marvel’s surgeon-turned-sorcerer who’s all set to open up a more mystical side to the MCU in his debut movie outing, Doctor Strange. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Baron Mordo, Strange’s rival. Tilda Swinton is The Ancient One – the powerful sorcerer who trained them both. Sinister’s Scott Derrickson will direct.
The mighty James Gunn will return to wrangle the Guardians once again in this hotly anticipated sequel. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper will all return, but apparently Josh Brolin’s Thanos won’t show up this time. Peter’s father’s identity remains the big unresolved plot point.
A late addition to Marvel’s Phase 3 slate, this – the standalone debut for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, who first popped up in Civil War. Cop Car’s John Watts will direct, from a script by Vacation’s John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein. Spidey will be 15 years old, and John Hughes will be an inspiration for his teen antics. The Vulture will appear, possibly played by Michael Keaton.
Originally, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man movie was expected on 28th July 2017, but it was brought forward 20 days for unknown reasons.
Further reading: Civil War director talks Spidey costume / More cast added
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27th October 2017 – Thor: Ragnarok
Taika Waititi of What We Do In The Shadows will direct this Thor threequel, from a script co-written by Stephany Folsom, Craig Kyle and Thor: The Dark World‘s Christopher Yost. Mr Chris Hemsworth will star, and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk will feature as well. The latter has described the film as a “universal road movie,” which sounds like an interesting twist on the superhero formula.
In the comics, ‘Ragnarok’ is essentially the apocalypse of the Norse gods, meaning that major excrement will hit fairly large fans in this one. We’d expect Tom Hiddleston’s Loki to play a pivotal role, considering where Loki ended up at the end of The Dark World.
Chadwick Boseman takes the title role, here, reprising it after his debut in Captain America: Civil War. In the comics, he’s a tribe leader, a warrior and a scientific genius all rolled into one. Here, we might see him face off against arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (played by Andy Serkis in Age Of Ultron). Joe Robert Cole – who previously penned the story for the 2011 thriller Amber Lake – worked first on the script. Ryan Coogler (Creed) then came in as director, and is believed to have worked on the script as well.
Intriguingly, this film was originally set for July release, a few months after Infinity War. It was moved to this new slot to accommodate Ant-Man And The Wasp. Could this one now be a direct lead-in to Infinity War?
Further reading: Black Panther: how Marvel (quietly) chose Chadwick Boseman / Danai Gurira joins cast
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27th April 2018 – Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War (it’s no longer officially dubbed ‘Part I’) is bound to be massive. Josh Brolin’s Thanos will finally begin his claim for Earth here, having bankrolled Loki’s foiled invasion attempt in The Avengers. Infinity Stones – the colour-coded and collectable MacGuffins of the MCU – will be of great importance, here. Expect all the Avengers available. The Russo brothers will direct.
Further reading: Infinity War is “an end to some version of that team” / Russo Bros tease story structure
6th July 2018 – Ant-Man And The Wasp
Here’s proof that Marvel are happy to reshuffle their deck when they see the need. Following the success of Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man, they moved around Black Panther and Captain Marvel to make room for an Ant-Man sequel. The title – Ant-Man And The Wasp – confirms that Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly will both return. Michael Douglas probably will, as well.
With a release date that lands between Infinity War instalments, we’re expecting this one to tie into those two somehow. Maybe both titular heroes will shrink down and spend two hours sneaking up on Thanos while he invades Earth?
Further reading: Peyton Reed reveals alternative Ant-Man ending / Paul Rudd on Civil War ending
8th March 2019 – Captain Marvel
Espionage agent and fighter pilot Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) nabs some superpowers from the Kree (the alien race seen terrorising the universe in Guardians Of The Galaxy) and becomes the heroic Captain Marvel. Will this film – penned by Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve – regale that comic book origin story or jump straight into her superheroics? Only time will tell, but we expect it’ll tie into Infinity War somehow.
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This one was originally expected to arrive in late 2018, but it’ll now hit the USA on 8th March 2019 instead. It moved to make way for Ant-Man And The Wasp.
This date was earmaked for Avengers: Infinity War Part II, but it’s now unclear what this film will be called, since Part I has been renamed simply Avengers: Infinity War. Regardless of title semantics, the Russo brothers will release their second Avengers movie (the fourth one overall, counting the two Joss Whedon flicks) in April 2019. Will Thanos still be around or will it be a new baddie? We’ll have to wait and see.
On the same day that Marvel announced Ant-Man And The Wasp, they also declared three as-yet-untitled movies for 1st May, 10th July and 6th November 2020. Those are the American release dates, since we don’t know the UK ones yet.
This big announcement on their website was entitled ‘Marvel Studios Phase 3 Update,’ which, to us, suggests that these three films will wrap up Phase 3 (which previously went from Civil War to Inhumans via two Avengers movies and seven other standalone films) rather than launch a new run with Phase 4.
Kevin Feige has also said Marvel is exploring ideas for a Black Widow solo movie, but it remains to be seen if this is one of the three mystery films.
It has recently been revealed that the Inhumans filmhas met with some delays following the additions of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man And The Wasp to Marvel’s cinematic slate. It won’t reach our screens in July 2019 anymore, but a new date hasn’t yet been confirmed instead. We’ll update this calendar when that happens. Perhaps it’ll take one of those mystery dates listed above.
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Marvel’s tentpole TV project Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been seeding Inhumans for quite some time. Modern day Inhumans are otherwise-ordinary people with ancient superpower-giving alien DNA in their system. The film will either focus on these people or the Inhuman Royal Family – the ancient aliens who started it all, centuries ago.
